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</style><p><strong>In this guide we will cover:</strong></p><p><strong>- How to connect AI to your Halo instance</strong></p><p><strong>- AI Functionalities</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Before AI can be leveraged in your Halo instance you will first need to set up an AI connection. In this guide we will run through how to connect your Halo to various AI models. </p><p><br></p><p>For the security implications associated with each model checkout <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2633/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo AI - Security Implications</a>. </p><p><br></p><p id="isPasted"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">How to connect AI to your Halo instance</span></strong></p><p>Head to configuration > AI (ensure the AI module is turned on). Under the 'setup' section of this page you can choose which AI connection to use. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImY2MjQxNjgxLWU0MWYtNGUwNC04Y2ViLTliMzI5ZmM3YzY0YSJ9.p2Fk5XOOUvHLfdukPALbuS9USzPoeBOAaV1PDLJfc2Y" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="520" height="266"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 1. Default AI connection </span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There are various options to choose from when picking a default AI connection for your Halo instance. In this guide we will run through the options available and the implications for choosing each respective option. <br></span></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Default Halo Connection </span></strong></p><p>Halo leverages the OpenAI API for the default connection covered under an enterprise agreement with OpenAI. No credentials or configuration are required to enable this connection type; it is pre-configured out of the box. When using this method you agree to your data being sent to Halo's OpenAI instance. Data is not stored by OpenAI or used to improve OpenAI.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>How is data handled when the Default Halo Connection?</strong></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>API Connection: </strong>The Halo system connects to Halo's OpenAI integration via an API. Data is sent over this connection for processing. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><br></p><p id="isPasted" style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Encryption:</strong> Data is transmitted over secure connections using encryption protocols TLS 1.3 (1.2 fallback) to ensure data privacy and security during transmission.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><br></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Vectorisation:</strong> The data sent to OpenAI is used for vectorization (embeddings), a process that converts text into numerical vectors for machine learning purposes. The data sent to OpenAI is used for vectorisation and generating novel output. Vectorisation is a process that converts text into numerical vectors for machine learning purposes. Generative capabilities takes input data and defined prompts for a specific purpose and returns novel output that is integrated into the platform. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><br></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Data Storage:</strong></p><ul><ul><li style="font-size: 11pt;"><p>Temporary vs. Permanent Storage - Depending on the service's architecture and policies, data might be stored temporarily during processing. There is no permanent storage of data unless specified as part of the service agreement.</p></li><li><p id="isPasted">Data Retention Policies -The processing of data required between Halo and the underlying OpenAI service is done in accordance with a Zero Data Retention Enterprise agreement between Halo and OpenAI, governing how data is stored for processing, Further information on OpenAI’s Zero Data Retention policies can be located <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/your-data" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p></li><li><p id="isPasted">For interactions involving the <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2336" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual agent</a>, data is retained until the chat session is completed, after which Halo will remove the temporarily stored data. As with the rest of OpenAI’s platform, data and files passed to the OpenAI API are never used to train OpenAI’s models.</p></li></ul></ul><p id="isPasted" style="margin-left: 20px;"><br></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><br></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Security and Compliance:</strong> Enabling this connection enables Halo’s OpenAI to become a sub processor of the data. Any resulting output of any AI functionality remains siloed in your tenant’s Halo’s database that follows our standard Data Protection Agreement. You can view our GDPR statement <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/gdpr/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> and your account manager can provide a copy of the data protection agreement. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><br></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Access to Data:</strong> Access to data is restricted to authorised personnel only, which might include system administrators or specific employees within Halo with a need-to-know basis. </p><ul><ul><li>Customer Control: Customer have control over their data and can request deletion of permanent data stored in their instance at any time. </li><li>Data Privacy Compliance:<strong> </strong>Halo complies with relevant regional data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, HIPPA) to ensure user privacy and data security.</li></ul></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Advantages</strong></p><p id="isPasted">•<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Pre-configured connection (no authorisation required)</p><p>•<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Free to use </p><p><br></p><p><strong>Disadvantages</strong></p><ul><li>Not all AI functionality can be used with this connection method. The following AI functionalities will not be available: <ul><li><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2138" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Knowledge Creation</a></li><li><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2387" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Emotion Detection</a></li><li><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2387" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sentiment Analysis</a></li><li>Custom Integrations</li></ul></li></ul><p><strong><em>Note: If you are using this connection method you will not be able to use the Azure OpenAI or OpenAI runbooks to run AI any functionality. If a piece of functionality relies on one of these runbooks this will be stated in the applicable guide. </em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Azure OpenAI Connection</span></strong></p><p>When this option is selected the Azure OpenAI model will be used. You will need to configure your own connection to AzureOpenAI to use this. </p><p><br></p><p>Hit the 'Configure Azure OpenAI connection' button after 'Own Azure OpenAI Connection' is selected as the connection method to enter your connection details.</p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjM0YjkzYTYzLWJiMmQtNDdlOS04ZjAxLWRmNWUzMDY5YmRhNyJ9.QWpnXaIWhfNbxGEo-wXag8W9bSE1nfClr31JwfVtz98" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="324" height="230"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 2. Configure Azure OpenAI Connection</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>From v2.236+, an additional option will show when using Azure OpenAI to determine whether to use "Assistants API" or "Responses API". Before this version all Virtual Agents that have an Azure OpenAI connection use the "Assistants API" which is being depreciated in August 2026.</p><p><br></p><p>Setting up a connection to your own Azure OpenAI account will require an endpoint URL, API key, API version, an embeddings deployment, and an OpenAI model deployment and a default OpenAI model, as shown in figure 3.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImU0YzdmMjZiLWFlYTUtNDQzMy1hMDE1LTYxMTk1NTY4ZTg1YiJ9.xGmnxZLVGjeiAeS4nbRYeveTW9iVVQbYuZg1ln1Or_k" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="514" style="width: 516px; height: 566.769px;" height="567"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 3. Azure OpenAI connection details</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Advantages</strong></p><ul><li>All AI functionality can be used with this method<ul><li><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Note: AI search functionalities will require an additional vector search database to be connected. However, Halo supports the use of an Azure AI Search database.</em></strong></li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Disadvantages</strong></p><ul><li>Not free to use - Tokens will need to be purchased to use Azure OpenAI, pricing depends on the models you choose. </li><li>Requires an Azure subscription</li></ul><p>A list of available models and their pricing per million tokens can be found <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/openai-service/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. </p><p><br></p><p>Regional availability of models can be found <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/foundry-models/concepts/models-sold-directly-by-azure?tabs=global-standard-aoai%2Cstandard-chat-completions%2Cglobal-standard&pivots=azure-openai" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. </p><p><br></p><p><strong>Connecting </strong></p><p>To generate obtain the connection details required to connect to your Azure OpenAI see our dedicated guide <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2316/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p><p><br></p><p id="isPasted">Two deployments will be required to setup this connection type:</p><p>•<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>One for embeddings (e.g., text-embedding-ada-002).</p><p>•<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>One for your OpenAI model (e.g., gpt-3.5-turbo or gpt-4).</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Own OpenAI connection</span></strong></p><p id="isPasted">When this option is selected the OpenAI model will be used. You will need to configure the connection to OpenAI to use this. Note that free versions of OpenAI are limited in the connection they provide, although can be used for testing. If you are looking to use the OpenAI connection long term a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">paid </span>account will be required. </p><p><br></p><p>A list of available models and their pricing per million tokens can be found <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://openai.com/api/pricing/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>For details on how to connect using this model see our guide on the <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1667/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>OpenAI Integration</strong></a>.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Advantages</strong></p><ul><li>Does not require an Azure subscription.</li><li>Free version of OpenAI can be connected (although this is not recommended for long term use).</li><li>All AI functionality is available with this connection type <ul><li style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><em><strong>Note: AI search functionalities will require an additional <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2673/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vector search database</a> to be connected.</strong></em></li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Disadvantages</strong></p><ul><li>Not free to use - A paid OpenAI account will be required. Pricing will depend on the model you choose. </li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">AI Functionalities</span></strong></p><p>Once you have connected you can begin configuring AI functionality for your Halo. We have various guides on how to use and set up each functionality:</p><p><br></p><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;"><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2386/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>AI Suggestions</strong></a></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><strong><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2387/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AI Insights</a></strong></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><strong><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2388/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create KB articles using AI</a></strong></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><strong><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1777/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AI Report Builder</a></strong></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><strong><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2389/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boost Ticket Processing using AI</a></strong></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><strong><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2388/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AI Surveys</a></strong></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2125/" id="isPasted" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Improve search functionality with AI</strong></a></li></ul>
